How Good Are the Sixers at Home?

Yeah it appears that the difference is exactly what i expected it to be.The truly amazing thing is the fact that everything was completely the opposite last year. How did that happen?

Anyway i think 13-7 is a low ball expected record for the rest of the home games. If they can keep up playing the way they've played over the past two months at home 15-5 is certainly within reach (if not better). The schedule suggests that too. As for road play i agree that if they keep this up they won't win more than 5 games.

Btw it's late January. This is the time of year when the Sixers start playing much better as evidenced with their record over the past few years.

I love this quote: "If I start getting into psychological profiles of fans, I really will be a mess." Agree 100%.

But I think Collins is wrong if he thinks Iguodala will get (positive) recognition from Philly fans if the Sixers win more consistently. Even as Iguodala (with Andre Miller) was leading the charge into the playoffs in 07-08 and 08-09, even as Iguodala played superbly at the ends of games for the entire 2nd half of 08-09 (coming through in 7 or 8 end-of-game situations, no exaggeration), Philly fandom was still 75% against him. Now it's more like 95%, and some of the criticism can only be described as the epitome of irrationality. So it's good that Collins doesn't pay attention to it ...

Brian, interesting topic because I was thinking about this topic. They have to get this win in Toronto. My concern is Toronto has lost 8 in a row. I suppose the Sixers will just have to make it 9 but by any stretch it won't be easy even though Toronto is a bad team. I think they may have thrown in the towel.

What exactly does pace indicate (I know what it measures.) Some backround:

The Sixers are currently 19th in the NBA in Pace. Since the Iverson trade they have been 20th-26th. In later Iverson's last 2 full years they were 2nd and 6th for Pace. Also, in the successful Larry Brown years they where mid 20's for Pace.

And this year, at home they are dead last for Pace. And yet they are in the top 5 for fast break points...

So is pace an indirect measure of solid defense and low TO's on offense? Because if you force teams to work for a shot and you don't turn the ball over, then your pace will be slow. But on the flip side, they are forcing less turnovers, so that also slows down the pace.

Anyhow, the pace last night was blistering (at least subjectively.) Really fun basketball to watch. But how come this team is currently doing best when the measured pace is slowest in the league?

The Sixers have been a slow team with a ton of fast break points for years now, because they don't get their fast break points by running off makes, they get them by either forcing turnovers and converting, or by having one of their smalls get a defensive rebound and push the ball immediately. They're opportunistic runners, whereas a team like GSW, DEN, PHO and NYK just run no matter what, and take early shots that aren't really fast breaks sometimes, just quick offense.

If you watch the Sixers, they rarely take early shots in the clock unless they're on a legitimate break, they always run some clock.

Yeah it makes sense. And I've been truly surprised that the Sixers lead the league in fewest TO's. Iguodala has gone from a career 2:1 A/TO to better than 3:1. And Lou and Jrue have also taken care of the ball (although Jrue still has room for improvement, but he's 20.)

I think the "slowest paced coach in history" label of Collins' scared me a bit this summer. But seeing his offense has ameliorated these concerns. he does not take the air out of the ball like LB- who would focus on floor balance (to protect against the break) at the expense of free-flowing offense.

That is a really interesting article- esp in regards to SA, and how they are a good defense despite teams shooting early in the clock against them. I wonder if they somehow encourage teams to "settle" for early jumpers?

By these "speed" measures, the Sixers are middle of the pack, and have a similar offensive and defensive "speed."

But the main limitation of this "speed" metric is that it does not take into account fast break points and fast break points allowed- since those are not normal possessions.

And in the Sixers case it balances out- since they score a bunch of fast break points, but don't give up that many (due to low TO's) so the total number of fast break possessions is probably close to average.

Yeah, I definitely don't see that, or Griffin, happening. Jrue would basically have to get as good as Rose for those guys to take us seriously. Or we'd need to take an elite team to seven games in the first round, and that by itself probably wouldn't be enough.

GoSixer's "Around the Web" is also enjoyable that way. There's a lot of fun notions rattling around in people's heads. Like, for example, how Iguodala with his "myriad" injuries is "hindering the development" of Jodie Meeks.

Bob, I know exactly what you're referencing, specifically the Jodie Meeks thing. It is funny, and shows just how impossible it is for someone to truly cover more than 2 or 3 NBA teams. There's not enough time in the week to cover all these teams effectively...

On how his bad play isn't his fault (but he's not making any excuses):

"Always I give 100 percent effort. I'm the person that nobody ever says 'Well, this is what's bothering Dray today.' Nobody knows that I'm sick. Nobody knows that my shoulder is really messed up. Nobody knows that my knee really is bothering me. Nobody is paying attention to what's wrong with me. Everybody just cares about, well, 'Why is he playing so bad?' There's a reason why people play bad."

"But I'm not going to make no excuse. I'm just going to play."

On how the fans don't treat him nice:

"We [he and Arenas] had a discussion, and this is what he said to me. 'Just as fast as they turned on me, it's going to happen to you.' I took it as a joke, but I actually see what he's talking about. Everybody is looking for someone to blame, and I feel like I'm turning into that person just like Gil."

"If you're a Wizards fan, that means you cheer for everybody. That doesn't mean you'll come to a game and you shout 'Trade him!' If you're part of a Wizards organization fan group, that means you cheer for the team."

On why the Wizards suck:

"We don't deal with it. Nobody says nothing. That's the problem right there. We're too much friends to each other, and we're scared to say anything to each other because nobody wants to hurt anyone's feelings."

Yes, the reason they're bad is they're too good friends to hurt each other's feelings with criticism of their lousy play.

Dray caught you baby - he's obviously making excuses and hoping that no one points out that his grasp of the English language indicates that while he may have graduated high school they didn't require him to go to class

They might have made their second mistake in making one too many moves. The first was in '09 trading resigning Hedo for bringing in Bass/matching Gortat's Dallas offer.

Lewis was really bad, but at least they could play him at the 4. I guess you'd rather have a bad guy to provide depth up front then overloading the backcourt. They probably thought they could rejuvenate Gil, hasn't happened yet. I would say that trade is looking like a complete loss for them.

Lewis was ridiculously passive, but he can still make shots. And with all the offensive additions, he could just be an extraordinarily overpaid three-point shooter, so that could work. Arenas, apparently, cannot make shots anymore, but that doesn't stop him from taking them.

I really don't think this is written in stone. When Howard goes out, they're a putrid defensive team. They have absolutely no size behind him anymore. Take a look at the Sixers game vs. them to see what happens when he's on the bench.

They've beaten a bunch of bad teams since the trade, but outside of a win over the Celtics in like their second game, they've lost every game against decent teams, and they also just lost to the Pistons.

They gave away their best defensive wing in Pietrus, second best in VC (even though he's no big loss imo), and all their depth in the front court in that trade. I don't see that team winning more than a round in the playoffs, and depending on matchups, they may get upset.

See, you say "on 8 shots" when you're talking about one of your guys, but you leave out the 13 possessions part of the equation. If Jrue had that game, all you'd be talking about is the turnovers.

Still, not a terrible game for Wall, in his team's 31st loss of the season. I'm going to have to dig up that long post you wrote about how true superstars never, ever play on really bad teams. Otherwise, they aren't true superstars. Their superstar-ness elevates even the worst roster to at least respectability.

DeMarcus Cousins Update!!!!: The game isn't over for the Kings, but Cousins has seen all the action he's going to see. The good news is that he only had 1 turnover, a spectacular night for him. The bad news is that he fouled out in only 21 minutes of action. That makes it 11 personal fouls in 35 minutes over the past two games, an extraordinary accomplishment.

Cousins did manage to score 9 points on 12 possessions, though, so he's got that going for him.

Also, DeMarcus has now put together a string of 14 consecutive games in which his turnovers + personal fouls = at least 5. Congrats, big man!